A good tip for newbies from a newbie

[rockythecat99]

I am a new player myself. Tomorrow will mark the end of my first month playing. I have 2k in winnings right now with a tourney win and a final table. At first I thought it was luck but now I knwo what has made me a successful beginner(other than re-reading sshe to death). To be successful in this game you need to concentrate to the best of your ability. I cannot stress this enough. Nothing else should be turned on around u no tv, no music nothing. I know people say to multitable and all but for beginners do not even think about it. You need to pay attention to everyhand you are not in even with more detail than the hands you are in. You will gain some very valuable info of how players play. I know this has been said but for newbies it is hard to understand at first. About a week ago I started fluctuatin in winning. I would lose 100 in a day, gain 100 next day. So on and so forth for a week. Then I was thinking to myself I have been losing money for making some dumb calls. I realized the reason was that I had aim on , mp3player on and so on while playing. This took away from my concentration. You cannot have this if you are going to be a winning player. This week I decided to cut all of that off. And wouldn't you know it. I have not mady any stupid moves all this week. Some bad beats but thats all. I know this post is long but I cannot stress enough this aspect of the game. Concentrate on every hand, it will greatly improve your game.

[BUD]

good advice. the other thing i would add is alot of people start out well then get over confident. happened to me online, and it has cost me a bit.
sincerely
bud

[daveymck]

[ QUOTE ]
good advice. the other thing i would add is alot of people start out well then get over confident. happened to me online, and it has cost me a bit.
sincerely
bud

[/ QUOTE ]

Moving up too quick is one of the biggest newbie (and not so newbie) mistakes. Particulary when you start off winning, I am sure most of us have done it at some point started playing a level without the bankroll (I was playing 3/6 with a $600 roll).

[Absolution]

Very good advice. Even in online low-buy multis you stay with same table for a good hour sometimes. People come and go, but you can still get very good reads on people and take notes. One little piece of information could win the tournament for you by building your stack or keeping you from busting. I'm trying to focus on this more.

Another piece of advice from this newbie to others: SLOW DOWN. This is one of my weaknesses. I get married to my hand preflop and will call too much on later streets without even thinking. Or I'll put a read on someone and think they are bluffing without considering the math. At the stakes we play it's too easy to play turbo poker because all of the clueless players do it. They just call call and raise without thinking. Don't sink to their level out of frustration or laziness. You might get some 'zzzzz' comments, but just ignore it. Oh, and don't slow down only when you have big hands. I see this a lot from the 'turbo' newbs.

[Nilbud]

I think this is good advice. I'm nowhere near the winnings you are after my first month, but then again, I play .05/.10 limit exclusively.

Over the last 15 days, I haven't been winning much and I was trying to come up with a reason. I realised, much like you, that I wasn't concentrating enough. Unfortunately, I tried two-tabling as well. What a disaster. It's fine until you get two hands going at once. I can barely calculate pot odds on one hand!

[breiman]

I am a newbie and would like to ask an unrelated question. Who keeps a non-supported A through the end with the board showing all low (but not a straight possiblity)

[Holden97]

If the board is all low, then must there not be a straight possibility -- or at least a pair on the board (thus trips or full house possiblity)?

[rockythecat99]

Also for newbies. Do not expect to get this game quickly. The only reason I am doing so well is that I am a computer enginnering major in my last month. I have had to take sooo many math courses up to calc 5 that the math is not hard at all for me so calculating pot odds is kinda easy. I also had to take probability and random processes so that has helped my game also. Learn pot odds very well. I can't stress enough that if you don't have pot odds DO NOT CALL. Even if you have a high pocket pair that I know is hard to fold. FOLD IT. This play will save you money in the long run. One last tip that has greatly improved my game. Make an excel spreadsheet of the pf hands that you should play from every position. So you have it right in front of you. FOLLOW IT. I just want to throw all these tips out because this site has been so helpful in my poker development I just want to give back. If any newbie has any questions I will try to answer them. Pm me if you want. Good luck everyone.

[Isura]

Definitely go easy on the multitabling. It is more important to think and understand the decisions you make than to sqeeze in x number of hands per hour. That will come with practice and improvement. It took me a long time to finally be able to 4-table .5/1 at PP successfully. Now after beating the game fairly easily, I've went back to 2 and 3 tabling at 1/2 until I get a feel for the game.

[Stever]

Im kinda new to online play as well. And yeah you gotta watch what you are doing. Stay focused. Allways practice good risk management with your money. Risk management means control your losses. Set limits to how much you will loose in a game and walk away when your limit gets hit. Dont stay in to try to win it back. When you start thinking like that you start taking stupid risks. As soon as you notice you are doing stupid stuff, tighten up you game and only play your best hands. Once you get back on track and feel confident, then try to steal a few pots with crap hands.
Online play moves fast, so you may notice yourself swing thru waves of good play and sloppy play. When your playing well capitalize on it, when you notice yourself getting sloppy give your head a shake and get back to work.

Stever [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
www.TheManWithTheAxe.com